Russia’s Gazprom has mentioned it might minimize provides through Ukraine from November 28, Rystad Vitality’s Senior Analyst Wei Xiong highlighted in a market notice despatched to Rigzone late Wednesday.
Xiong outlined within the notice that the menace comes within the wake of Russia alleging Ukraine is diverting fuel provides supposed for Moldova. Ukraine denies this, Xiong identified.
“After Russia halted all move through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline in September, Europe has been receiving Russian fuel by means of simply two pipelines – the Ukraine transit route and through TurkStream, with flows at 42 million cubic meters per day (MMcmd) and 26 MMcmd, respectively,” Xiong mentioned within the notice.
“Provides to Europe could be additional decreased if flows through Ukraine are halted. Nonetheless, the affect on costs would possible be muted provided that the market has largely factored within the danger that Russian flows to Europe might drop to zero,” Xiong added.
Within the notice, Xiong highlighted that temperatures in Europe turned colder over the weekend however mentioned they’ve since risen above common once more. Regardless of this, there’s an rising risk that winter temperatures will drop beneath common as December approaches, Xiong warned.
“This implies Europe’s excessive fuel shares might begin to see withdrawals within the coming weeks, lending help to TTF ahead costs with the speed of withdrawal impacting the development for LNG costs,” Xiong mentioned.
“EU storage capability is sort of 95 % full, with Germany flat at 99 % and UK inventories additionally flat at one hundred pc of capability,” Xiong added.
To organize for the winter season, Europe has continued importing excessive volumes of LNG by means of November, Xiong mentioned, including that the area’s regasification capability now operating at about 90 % utilization.
In a separate market notice despatched to Rigzone final week, Rystad’s Senior Analyst Kaushal Ramesh outlined that Russian army strikes had focused power infrastructure in Ukraine, together with a fuel facility.
“Some geopolitics induced volatility might due to this fact return as Russia intensifies strikes which will harm crucial power infrastructure in Ukraine, jeopardizing not solely Ukraine’s power provide this winter but additionally the ~40 MMcmd of Russian pipeline fuel that continues to transit by means of Ukraine,” Ramesh mentioned in that market notice.
“Nonetheless, Europe has been planning for a extreme winter and, with fuel storage amenities now over 95 % full, this could present a cushion for unexpected occasions, together with if Russian pipeline fuel volumes drop to zero,” Ramesh added within the notice.
To contact the creator, e-mail andreas.exarheas@rigzone.com
